Graduation Present

After I graduated in December my mom and I made the short drive to NYC to go to Bobby Flay's restaurant Bar Americain. Years ago we had gone to his restaurant Bolo and ever since I'd wanted to try more of his restaurants.

We hit the restaurant for Sunday Brunch. The food of course was incredible. I found the selection to be chic steakhouse and raw bar. The menu offered steakhouse classics such as french onion soup, cobb salad, a burger and steaks all with the Bobby Flay twist.

For starters we ordered brunch cocktails and the hot potato chips with blue cheese sauce. Thinly sliced fingerling potatoes fried and perfectly seasoned with a blue cheese "fondue" dipping sauce. So good.

Poached eggs are so trendy right now. Its so much fun to cut it open and watch the yolk ooze out. And they're delicious! Bar Americain's take on the classic cobb salad was bibb lettuce with bacon, a poached egg(versus the traditional hard boiled), and buttermilk blue cheese dressing. You cut the poached egg on top and the yolk oozes all over the salad, and kind of becomes a part of the dressing that coats the tender bibb lettuce. I thought it was a tasty and creative twist on a classic.

I have to apologize for my pictures being so blurry and not zoomed in. I promise they will get better. The next thing I had was the Lobster Avocado shellfish cocktail. Unfortunately you can't tell by my picture but it was visually stunning. Huge chunks of chilled lobster and avocado tossed with watercress and a tarragon vinaigrette. I was really surprised by the portion size, there was so much lobster in it, definitely worth every cent. And again, it was so tasty.

Lastly, I had to have the Spicy Tuna Tartar with classic garnishes. The garnishes were minced hard boiled egg, red onion, caper and parsley, and it was served with grilled crostini. I know that tuna is super trendy and really overdone right now in high end restaurants, but tuna is my absolute favorite thing to eat. And tuna tartar is so classic I had to give Bobby's version a try. It was spicy, but not so spicy that you couldn't taste the tuna, and the garnishes cooled down the heat level.

All in all my meal was fabulous. Definitely memorable. The only disappointment was that Bobby Flay was not there in person to greet me at the door... BUT

Ina Garten was there! ha! She was sitting at the table across from us with her husband and another couple, and when they got up to leave my mom chased her down so I could get a picture with her. Definitely a bonus graduation present that not even my mother could have planned!